BEALE WINS SHOT PUT NATIONAL TITLE; DRAGONS 2ND AFTER DAY 1
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
TOPEKA – Freshman Xylavene Beale had some tense moments in the preliminary round of the women's shot put on Day 1 of the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday at the Sneed Indoor Athletic Facility on the campus of Washburn University.
Beale did qualify for the finals and rode that momentum all the way to an individual national championship to lead the Hutchinson Community College women's track and field team to second place after Day 1 of the two-day event after 6 of 20 events were scored.
The Blue Dragons produced points in three events, scoring 29 points to sit in second place after Day 1. Iowa Western leads the women's team race with 30 points. Saturday's competition opens at 10:30 a.m.
Beale fouled on her first two preliminary attempts on Friday, leaving her with one more opportunity to advance to the finals. The Blue Dragon freshman did qualify for the finals with a school-record 52 feet, 3.75 inches (15.94 meters), which was the top preliminary round attempt.
Beale then survived three round of finals – her best attempt in the finals was 50-6.75 (15.41 meters) – to claim the first Blue Dragon indoor national championship since 2023. She won the event 1.75 feet over Natassia Burrell of Cloud County.
Beale established a new Blue Dragon shot put record for the fourth time this season.
She is the first Blue Dragon NJCAA Indoor national champion since 2023 when Hutchinson won the 4x800-meter relay. She is the first individual indoor national champion since 2018 since Adriana Yanic won the 60-meter hurdles and Pentathlon in 2018.
Beale is the second Blue Dragon to win a national shot put title in team history. Esther Ikomi was the first, winning the shot put in 1998.
Freshman Mildred Rono helped the Blue Dragons score 14 points on Friday.
Rono was the national runner-up in the 5,000 meters. Rono ran a time of 16 minutes, 48.75 seconds, which broke the meet record. Iowa Western's Juliana Sakat won the event with a time of 16:42.47.
Rono then ran the anchor leg of the Blue Dragons' Distance Medley Relay, which finished third with a school-record time of 11:54.47. The Blue Dragon relay consisted of Ashara Frater, Sabrina McDonald, Kimberlin Lovell and Rono.
The Blue Dragons scored 15 points in the shot put on Friday. In addition to Beale's national title, sophomore Deisheline Mayer Scott placed fourth with a personal record attempt of 46-3.5 (14.11 meters). That mark ranks third in Blue Dragon indoor history.
McDonald advanced to Saturday's 600-meter finals after placing eighth in Friday's preliminary round. McDonald ran a time of 1:34.95, which is the best time ever ran by a Blue Dragon in an NJCAA Indoor Championship.
Freshman Valentine Titren placed 12th in the NJCAA Pentathlon. Titren scored 2,805 points, which is third most by a Blue Dragon in the NJCAA Indoor championship and third-most in Blue Dragon history. Titren's best performance in the five-event competition was a tie for sixth in the high jump after clearing 4-9.75.
In other Blue Dragon events on Friday:
+ Grace Bender placed 14th in the pole vault after clearing 10 feet;
+ Sidney Holt was 23rd in the 60-meter preliminaries with a time of 7.72 seconds, the fastest time by a Blue Dragon in NJCAA Indoor history.
+ Brittany-Ann McDonald was 40th in the 60-meter preliminaries with a time of 8.31 seconds.
+ Anecia Campbell was 12th in the 200-meter preliminaries with a time of 24.31 seconds. She was 18th in the 400-meter prelims in a time of 58.02 seconds. Both of those marks were Blue Dragon records for an NJCAA Indoor Championship.
Saturday's Blue Dragon Schedule at the NJCAA Indoor Championships:
10:30 a.m. – Rose Min Paulsen competes in the high jump;
1:45 p.m. – Sabrina McDonald runs in the 600-meter finals;
2:00 p.m. – Xylavene Beale and Deisheline Mayer Scott compete in the women's Weight Throw;
2:05 p.m. – Mildred Rono and Ashara Frater run in the Mile Run finals;
3:55 p.m. – Rono, Frater and Kimberlin Lovell run in the 3,000-meter finals.